‘Why?’
She frowned. ‘If someone we know is working at Walgreens and you walk up to buy a pregnancy test, they’re going to know who it’s for.’
Point taken. And with our school’s limited and stereotypical mind-set, it meant Ava would go from ‘nerdy Black girl’ to ‘slutty Black girl’. They wouldn’t care that she and her boyfriend were together for over two years before this even happened. They would pounce on it as a way to take her down a peg.
No way in hell was that happening. ‘Okay, we find a drugstore in either city, get the test and get to Sunset Estates before our shift starts.’
‘You really think I’m going to work if that test is positive?’
The idea of calling out when Natalie was holding the letter of recommendation over my head made me nervous, but Ava was right. There was no way we could work if it was positive.
‘We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,’ I said.
Step one was to get a pregnancy test.
‘Why are we doing this here?’ I asked, handing Ava the plastic pee stick. The Sunset Estates employee ladies’ room was not the first place I had in mind when it came to taking pregnancy tests. But we’d hit traffic on the way into Philly and had to take back roads to get here even close to on time for our shift.
‘I know your ass isn’t calling out if I’m pregnant.’
‘I would absolutely do that.’ It wasn’t a lie. I would try to convince her that working would help keep her mind off it, but if she really wanted me to, I would. Even if we were getting double-time holiday pay for this sham holiday.
‘Oh, so you’d rather do it at your house?’ She pulled the stall door shut behind her. ‘Ormine? And then what? We leave everything in the trash can for my uncle to find?’
‘No, we take it to the Taco Bell and throw it in their dumpster, then we eat Doritos Locos Tacos in the parking lot.’ Whether they were celebration or commiseration tacos, time would tell.
‘Just tell me what I have to do.’
‘You pee on it.’
‘Read the directions, Tommy!’
I flipped the box over. ‘Take off the cap …’ I waited until I heard the plastic cap click off. ‘Hold the absorbent test strip down and place under the stream of urine for five seconds.’
Ava counted to five aloud.
‘Okay, now don’t—’
The bathroom door opened, and I jumped, hiding the box behind me.
Morgan yelped when she realized I was standing by the sink. ‘Tommy, what the hell are you doing in here? Get out!’
‘He’s with me!’ Ava called from the stall. Morgan was in our class at school. We occasionally hung out with her outside work in a group setting or at parties, but she wasn’t exactly in our inner circle.
At least not usually. But Ava seemed to be allowing her in now.
Once Morgan shut the door behind her – now more interested in what we were doing than in using the bathroom – I finished what I was saying. ‘Don’t hold the absorbent side up, keep it down until you cap it, then it has to stay flat.’
There was another plastic click. ‘Can one of you hold this for me?’ Ava held the pregnancy test under the stall.
Morgan took it, gently, and placed it on the counter next to the sink. I set a timer on my phone for five minutes. Morgan gave me a concerned look, then turned to the stall as Ava flushed and joined us. I stepped aside as she washed her hands.
‘I’m ten days late,’ Ava said, matter-of-factly.
Morgan nodded, not seeming all that shocked. ‘Have you thought about what you’re going to do if that stick says you’re pregnant?’
This was something Ava and I had talked around on the drive without getting specific. I didn’t want to pressure her one way or the other, so I told her she would have my support no matter what happened. But I knew how she was – she had to figure outthisbefore we could plan what was going to happen after. She looked at me as she leaned against the wall.
‘I can’t do adoption,’ she said. ‘I know I can’t. I’ll tell myself I can, but then I know as soon as that baby is here …’ She let her voice trail off, shaking her head. ‘But you have to be eighteen to get an abortion without a parent in PA.’
